powers while the other two were mere spectators of the strife. CHAP. 1809. 12. effervescence Austrian But, though refused all co-operation from the European cabinets, the court of Vienna was not without hopes of obtaining powerful succours from the Germanic people. General The Tugendbund or Burchenschaff, which had spread its in Germany ramifications as far as indignation at French oppression in aid of the was felt in the north and east of Germany, had already cause. formed a secret league against the oppressor, independent of the agreements of cabinets; and thousands of brave men in Westphalia, Cassel, Saxony, and the Prussian states, animated by the example of the Spanish patriots, were prepared to start up in arms for the defence of the Fatherland, as soon as the Imperial standards crossed the Inn. The peasants of the Tyrol, whose ardent and hereditary attachment to the House of Hapsburg had been rendered still more enthusiastic by the bitter experience they had had of their treatment as aliens and enemies by the Bavarian government, longed passionately to rejoin the much-loved Austrian dominion; and the first battalion of the Imperial troops which crossed the Salzburg frontier would, it was well known, at once rouse twenty thousand brave mountaineers into desperate and formidable hostility. The cabinet of Vienna, despite its aristocratic prepossessions, was prepared to take full advantage of these favourable dispositions; and, impelled by necessity, not only maintained in secret an active correspondence with the numerous malcontents in the adjoining provinces, who panted for the moment of German deliverance, but was prepared, the moment hostilities were commenced, to call upon them by animated proclamations to repair to its standards, and determine, by a vigorous popular demonstration, the uncertainty or vacillations of their respective governments. Thus had the energy of general enthusiasm in the course of the contest already come to change sides. While France, resting on the coalitions of cabinets and the force of disciplined armies, was sternly repressing, in every direction, the fervour of national exertion, Spain 1 Pelet, i. 71, and Austria openly invoked the aid of popular enthusiasm, 79. Erz and loudly proclaimed the right of mankind, when oppres- 52, 54. sion had reached a certain point,1 to redress their own VOL. XII. Johan. Feld. CHAP. wrongs, and take the lead in the achievement of their own deliverance.* LVI. 1809. 13. Meanwhile the Austrian ambassador at Paris had the difficult task to discharge, of maintaining apparently Character of amicable relations with the French government at the Metternich, time when his cabinet were openly preparing the means ambassador of decided hostility. But the BARON METTERNICH, Who the Austrian at Paris. then filled that important situation at the court of Napoleon was a man whose abilities were equal to the task. A statesman, in the widest acceptation of the word, gifted with a sagacious intellect, a clear perception, a sound judgment; profoundly versed in the secrets of diplomacy, and the characters of the leading political men with whom he was brought in contact in the different European cabinets; persevering in his policy, far-seeing in his views, unrivalled in his discrimination, and at the same time skilful in concealing these varied qualities; a perfect master of dissimulation in public affairs, and yet honourable and candid in private life; capable of acquiring information from others, at the very moment when he was eluding all similar investigations by them; unbounded in application, richly endowed with knowledge, he also enjoyed the rare faculty of veiling these great acquirements under the cover of polished manners, and causing his superiority to be forgotten in the charms of a varied and intellectual conversation. These admirable abilities were fully appreciated at Berlin, where he had formerly been ambassador; but they excited jealousy and distrust among the diplomatists of Paris, who, seeing in the new representative of the Cæsars, qualities which they were not accustomed to in his predecessors, and unable either to overcome his caution or divine his inD'Abr. xvi. tentions, launched forth into invectives against his character, and put a forced or malevolent construction upon his most inconsiderable actions.1 1 Hard. x. 302, 303. 174, 175. * Napoleon loudly accused the cabinet of Vienna of insurrectionary iniquity, in thus fomenting popular efforts against the armies of Imperial France. "Austria," said the Moniteur, "has adopted the revolutionary system: she has no right now to complain of the conduct of the Convention, in proclaiming war to the palace and peace to the cottage. A plan has been organised at Vienna for a general insurrection over all Europe, the execution of which is confided to the ardent zeal of the princes of the House of Austria, propagated by the proclamations of its generals, and diffused by its detachments at the distance of two hundred leagues from its armies. The leading characteristic of that system is, the terror universally spread by the Austrian generals, to excite by main force that revolution."-Moniteur, No. 239, 1809; and PELET, i. 79. CHAP. LVI. 1809. between the Austrian Notwithstanding all his caution and diplomatic address, however, the Austrian ambassador could not blind the French Emperor to the preparations which were going forward. In a public audience of the envoys of the 14. Angry interprincipal European powers at Paris, he openly charged change of the cabinet of Vienna with hostile designs; and Metter- notes nich, who could not deny them, had no alternative but French and to protest that they were defensive only, and rendered courts. necessary by the hostile attitude of the princes of the Feb. 17. Rhenish confederacy, to whom Napoleon had recently transmitted orders to call out their contingents.* In truth, however, though loud complaints of hostile preparations were made on both sides, neither party was desirous to precipitate the commencement of active operations. Austria had need of every hour she could gain to complete her armaments, and draw together her troops upon the frontier from the various quarters of her extensive dominions; and Napoleon had as much occasion for delay, to concentrate his forces from the north and centre of Germany in the valley of the Danube; and he was desirous not to unsheath the sword till advices from St Petersburg made him certain of the concurrence of Alexander in his designs. At length the long-wished for despatches arrived, and relieved him of all anxiety by announcing the mission of Prince Schwartzenberg to St Petersburg, the refusal of the cabinet of Russia to accede to his proposals, and Feb. 19. its determination to support Napoleon in the war with "Well," said Napoleon, "M. Metternich, here are fine news from Vienna! What does all this mean? Have they been stung by scorpions? Who threatens you? What would you be at? As long as I had my army in Germany you conceived no disquietude for your existence; but the moment it was transferred to Spain you consider yourselves endangered! What can be the end of these things? What, but that I must arm as you arm, for at length I am seriously menaced? I am rightly punished for my former caution. Have you, sir, communicated your pretended apprehensions to your court? if you have done so, you have disturbed the peace of mine, and will probably plunge Europe into numberless calamities. I have always been the dupe of your court in diplomacy; we must now speak out; it is making too much noise for the preservation of peace, too little for the prosecution of war. Do they suppose me dead? We shall see how their projects will succeed; and they will reproach me with being the cause of hostilities, when it is their own folly which forces me to engage in them. But let them not imagine they will have war to carry on with me alone; I expect a courier from Russia; if matters turn out there as I expect, I shall give them fighting enough." How easily may Napoleon's ideas and words be always distinguished from those of all other men! At least he always lets us understand his meaning; no inconsiderable advantage, in the midst of the general studied obscurity and evasions of diplomatic language.— See THIBAUDEAU, vii. 204, 205. CHAP. 1809. Austria which was approaching. Orders were immediately despatched for the French ambassador to leave Vienna, who accordingly took his departure on the last day of February, leaving only a chargé-d'affaires to communicate intelligence till relations were finally broken off; and though Metternich still remained at Paris, his departure was hourly expected; and such was the 304. Pelet, estrangement of the Emperor, that he never addressed Stut. 14, 20. to him a word, even in public and formal diplomatic intercourse.1 Feb. 28. 1 Thib. vii. 205, 206. Hard. x. 303, i. 117, 119. 15. Deep um by Austria at the confer ence of Erfurth. In the course of his discussions with Champagny, the French minister for foreign affairs at this period, Metternich, with all his caution, could not disguise the deep brage taken umbrage taken by Austria at not having been invited to take part in the conferences of Erfurth; and he admitted, that, if this had been done, the cabinet of Vienna would in all probability have recognised Joseph as King of Spain, and the rupture would have been entirely prevented. In truth, Austria had good reason to anticipate evil to herself from the ominous conjunction of two such powers in her neighbourhood; while at the same time, the cordiality of Alexander would unquestionably have cooled if Francis or Metternich had been admitted to these deliberations. Napoleon's favour was too precious to be divided between two potentates without exciting jealousy : like a beauty surrounded by lovers, he could not show a preference to one without producing estrangement of the other. He chose for his intimate ally the power of whose strength he had had the most convincing experience, and from whose hostility he had, from its distance, least to apprehend.2 2 Thib. vii. 207. 16. tration of the March 4. Meanwhile, Napoleon was rapidly completing his arrangements. Orders were despatched to Davoust early in Measures for March to concentrate his immense corps at Bamberg, and the concen- establish the headquarters of the whole army at WurtzFrench army. burg; Massena, at the same time, received directions to repair to Strasburg, and press on with his corps to Ulm, and there unite with the army of the Rhine; Oudinot was moved upon Augsburg; Bernadotte despatched to Dresden to take the command of the Saxons; Bessières, with the Imperial Guard, transported by post in all imaginable haste from Burgos across the Pyrenees and CHAP. LVL 1809. Rhine; instructions were transmitted to the French ambassador at Warsaw to hasten the formation of three Polish divisions, to co-operate with the Russians in protecting the Grand-duchy of Warsaw and menacing Galicia; while the princes of the Rhenish confederacy were enjoined to collect their respective contingents at their different rallying points, and direct them towards the general rendezvous of this immense force on the Danube, at Ingolstadt or Donauwerth. Thus, from all quarters of Europe, from the mountains of Asturias to the plains of Poland, armed men were converging in all directions to the valley of the Danube, where a hundred and fifty thousand soldiers would ere long be collected; while the provident care of the Emperor was not less actively exerted in collecting magazines upon the projected line of ope- 1 Thib. vii. rations for the stupendous multitude, and providing, in 206. Pelet, the arming and replenishing of the fortresses, both a base Stut. 26, 29. for offensive operations, and a refuge in the improbable event of disaster.1 i. 119, 126. Austria. On the side of the Austrians, preparations not less threatening were going rapidly forward. The regular 17. army had been augmented to three hundred thousand Preparations infantry and above thirty thousand cavalry; besides two and forces of hundred thousand of the landwehr and Hungarian insurrection. The disposable force was divided into nine corps, besides two of reserve. Six of these, containing nominally one hundred and fifty thousand men, of whom one hundred and twenty thousand might be relied on as able to assemble round the standards, were mustered on the frontiers of Bavaria, besides a reserve in Bohemia, under the immediate command of the Archduke Charles. The Archduke John was intrusted with the direction of two others, forty-seven thousand strong, in Italy, supported by the landwehr of Carinthia, Carniola, and Istria, at least twenty-five thousand more, who, though hardly equal to a shock in the field, were of great value in garrisoning fortresses and conducting secondary operations; the Marquis Chastellar was prepared to enter the eastern frontier of the Tyrol from the Pusterthal, with twelve thousand regular troops, where he expected to be immediately joined by twenty thousand hardy and warlike peasants; while the Archduke Ferdinand, with thirty thousand infantry and |